QPR’s Nahki Wells hands wasteful Leeds defeat with controversial goal

Well well – so much for QPR’s useless defence. It won them the game here, stifling Leeds throughout the second half despite Bielsa’s side seeing almost all of the ball. Slaven Bilic will be rubbing his hands at that result – West Brom can go four points clear if they win on Monday – while Bielsa is left looking nervously over his shoulder. But the very literal winners here are QPR, who not only showed that they have the attackers to mount a bid for the top flight, but also that their backline are not the mugs we all thought. A late push for promotion? I hope so.

Full time: QPR 1-0 Leeds

And after a bit of time-wasting from the hosts, we’re all done. Leeds players swarm towards the referee, no doubt complaining that the winning goal should never have stood – and they’d be right. But QPR deserved the win here: they shackled the visitors well and attacked with real abandon. The contrast between the tame Bamford and the electric pair of Eze and Osati-Samuel was especially striking. QPR should be setting their sights firmly on the playoffs. Leeds, on the other hand, need a jolt of life.

91 mins: And that should be that. After a bit of a kerfuffle sparked by the sending-off, QPR get play going again with a one-man advantage. Eze jinks forwards and works some space on the edge of the box, but slashes high and wide.

Red card! Phillips is sent off

Phillips loses control midway inside the QPR half and as the ball skitters away from him he lunges in unforgivably on Geoff Cameron. Wildly out of control, two-footed, knee height. A disgraceful tackle. He knows it, and mopes off sheepishly with no arguments.

QPR’s Geoff Cameron reacts to the challenge by Kalvin Phillips which earnt the Leeds player an early bath. Photograph: Simon Davies/ProSports/Shutterstock

84 mins: Leeds continue to turn the screw, QPR camped in their own penalty box now. But Bielsa’s men don’t really look like creating a chance. Unless they manage to, this will be three defeats in a row, and one win in eight. Stevens is sent on for Klich.

81 mins: QPR mount a rare attack, Osayi-Samuel electing to pass this time and picking out the overlapping Kane, whose low cross looks for Kane, who does well to get on the end of it but is under too much pressure to muster a decent shot. That’s his last involvement – on comes Pugh.

78 mins: A heavy touch by Wallace sees him dispossessed by Costa, who is brought down by the left-back on the very edge of the box – free-kick. It’s the exact same spot of turf which the goal came from.

75 mins: Klich, appearing on the right wing, whips in a magnificent cross and Bamford hurls himself at the ball, but just can’t make contact. He’s been unconvincing today … is he really the striker to lead a promotion charge?

72 mins: Leeds resume their attacking and work a good opening on the left only for Alioski to slip at the crucial moment. Then Eze gathers possession and shows Hernandez just enough of the ball to tempt him into a tackle before whisking it away again, earning himself a free-kick and his team some respite. Double change for QPR: Scowen and Clarke for Amos and Chair.

68 mins: Osayi-Samuel, fast becoming a lone attacker for QPR, is again hauled down, this time by Cooper. The free-kick comes to nothing but he picks up the ball moments later and drifts between two befuddled defenders before sidestepping beyond another inside the box. He’s crowded out before he can get a shot away, but that was magical skill.

Bamford misses!

The striker gathers his nerves, steps up … and pokes a rather pitiful penalty low to Kelly’s left. Kelly guesses right – well, left – and pushes the ball wide. Good save. Poor penalty. Redemption for Kelly.

58 mins: End to end stuff now. QPR attacking promisingly through wells and Amos until Phillips dispossesses, feeds Hernandez on the counter, and he looks for Costa. But the pass is rushed and Costa is forced too wide.

54 mins: Osayi-Samuel offers Leeds a gentle reminder of the threat they’re facing, latching on to a long clearance and spinning on a solo run towards goal. Alioski matches him stride for stride and manages to put the ball out. From the corner, Oseyi-Samuel gathers the ball again and beats two defenders inside the Leeds box before Alioski intervenes and slashes wildly at the ball, which goes behind. Somehow the referee gives a goal kick. Jack Clarke is preparing to come on for QPR.

51 mins: Cameron’s loose pass is pounced on by Costa, who rampages into the box and lays off to Ayling on the overlap, whose chipped cross is met at the back post by Harrison – but the header flashes just wide. That’s the closest Leeds have come. QPR might need to ride out the storm here.

48 mins: Good start from Leeds, who works their way really nicely from back to front, with Bamford engineer a sight of goal and Klich eventually seeing a couple of low crosses from the right cut out. Corner. Cooper heads over.

That was a fairly great half of football – both teams really going for it, and no shortage of attackers willing to take risks and attempt the audacious. QPR have looked like scoring every time they’ve gone forward, while Leeds have looked nice and classy but notably short of incision. Time for Ezgjan Alioski?

Half-time: QPR 1-0 Leeds

The referee’s whistles is met with deafening boos from the away fans, who can feel rightly aggrieved that the game’s only goal was allowed to stand. That said, QPR have looked the most dangerous side, with Leeds seeing plenty of the ball but creating very little. The two best players on the pitch have been Eze and Osayi-Samuel, who are causing Bielsa’s defence all manner of problems. I’d be surprised if either are playing in the Championship next season.

45 mins: More purposeful play from Leeds, who are moving the ball around well now but can’t find the final killer ball. Eventually Harrison wins a fre-kick in the corner after receiving the ball from Klich and zooming past Kane. Kelly does well to gather Harrison’s low whipped delivery.

41 mins: Eze, a class above everyone else on the pitch, releases Amos with a gorgeously languid outside-of-the-foot pass, and the midfielder charges through the middle and makes it to the edge of the Leeds box before being stopped in his path by White. A minute later, Osayi-Samuel picks the ball up on the right and wrestles his way past Dallas, whose rugby tackle earns him a booking – just what he doesn’t need.

38 mins: A bit more needle, Chair hauling down Phillips in midfield and the Leeds player kicking out in frustration. Both men receive a stern talking-to and clash again – legally – moments later. then Costa find space on the edge of the box but his shot is deflected wide.

34 mins: Again QPR’s wingers cause problems, first Osayi-Samuel gets down the right but is well shackled by Dallas, but then Eze picks up the ball and lures Ayling into a rash foul. He floats in the free-kick from the left, which finds an unmarked Wells who can only side-foot badly wide from five yards out. Then, somehow, the resulting goalkick sets Bamford clean through – and Kelly scampers out into no-man’s land! But the Leeds striker lashes an early strike high and wide when the situation called for calm. Oh dear.

“How awesome is it to watch football without VAR?” writes JR from Illinois. “It’s like being in the past when things were simple and wonderful. It also doesn’t hurt that VAR would have ruled out that QPR goal and I happen to root for the Baggies.” Quite right.

30 mins: It comes to nothing, and QPR counter brilliantly, Eze to Chair, whose raking ball picks out Osayi-Samuel. His trickery gets him into the box and he squares to Chair on the D, but his low effort is rushed and trickles wide.

28 mins: After a shaky start, Leeds have settled into the game. Costa dances in off the flank and looks for Bamford, who can’t escape his marker. From the resulting corner, Costa picks the ball up again and wins a free-kick on the left.

24 mins: The first sign of needle, as Hernandez and Amos contest a loose ball and get involved in some heated but just-about-above-board midfield scrapping, the Leeds player eventually tackling his opponent with needless force.

Goal! QPR 1-0 Leeds (Wells, 20)

QPR lead! Eze’s driven free-kick doesn’t get past the wall but Wells gathers the loose ball and taps in from close range. But he controlled it with his hand! Unwittingly, but unequivocally. Leeds are furious. The goals stands. One-nil.

Queens Park Rangers’ Nahki Wells slots the ball home to open the scoring. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/PA

19 mins: From the resulting corner, Osayi-Samuel picks up the half-cleared ball on the halfway line and storms majestically forward, right at the heart of Leeds’ flailing defence, eventually winning a foul right on the edge of the box. He’s been superb so far.

8 mins:QPR hem leeds into their own half, with Chair, Eze and Osayi-Samuel taking turns to run at a Leeds defence that eventually clears. On the counter, Bamford unleashes an audacious chip from almost the halfway line. It sails over Kelly but drifts a few feet wide.

5 mins: QRP are clearly under instruction to send the ball early towards Osayi-Samuel and isolate him against Dallas, Leeds’ stand-in left-back. down the other end, Leeds mount an attack that ends with a volley scuffed into the floor by Harrison.

The teams are out, and it’s a glorious afternoon in west London. Handshakes are exchanged and formations adopted – and we’re off. Leeds get going with a bit of keep-ball, before Costa’s driving run is curtailed as he reaches the QPR box.

The hardest-worked defenders today, though, might just be Leeds’ two full-backs, who’ll be up against the combined trickery of Bright Osayi-Samuel and Eberechi Eze, two outrageously talented dribblers with no shortage of final product and who can switch flanks at will. You’d imagine a busy afternoon awaits for Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas.

Speaking of that defence, 21-year-old former Liverpool youth-teamer Conor Masterson is making his league debut for QPR today at the heart of it. He can’t do any worse than what’s come before him, right…?

Die-hard QPR fan Aditya emails from Mumbai to get us in the mood: “Love to see the way we’re playing this season. We’ve got the best front three in the league (okay, second best to Brentford) and a shocking defence – every game is a rollercoaster. Looking forward to seeing how we square up against a stuttering Leeds.”

Just the one change for Leeds, then, and a forced one at that – Pablo Hernández coming in for the injured Barry Douglas. Bielsa is clearly of the mind that no tinkering is needed despite the ominous downturn in results.

As for QPR, they make three changes with the most notable being the omission of Jordan Hugill who misses out with what the club describe as a “knock”. But the real story here might just be on the hosts’ bench, where there’s a spot for the teenage attacker Jack Clarke who joined this week on loan from Tottenham. Clarke joined Spurs in the summer from – you guessed it – Leeds, and was promptly loaned back to them this season, only to be recalled by Spurs in December because he wasn’t being given a game. Got that? If not, here’s the short version: Clarke has a point to prove.

Preamble

Funny league, the Championship. Despite being runaway favourites for the automatic promotion spots and sitting snugly in first and second, neither Leeds nor West Brom have won a league game this decade! In fact, the only victory they’ve managed between them in the last month was Leeds’ 5-4 win at Birmingham – a glorious occasion, but hardly the stuff of hard-nosed champions.

And yet here we are, with Marcelo Bielsa’s boys heading down to the capital with top spot in their sights. A win would take them there – at least until their rivals play on Monday night – although leaving Loftus Road with three points might be rather more easily said than done for a side who, just as they started to look dead-certs for promotion, have hit that fabled winter wobble – the one their manager seems to carry with him wherever he goes.

Standing in their way this afternoon are Mark Warburton’s magnificently freewheeling QPR side, who are by no means out of the promotion chase themselves – and encouragingly for us, have scored more goals than any team bar the one at the very top, and conceded more goals than team bar the one at the very bottom. They also have the twinkle-toed Eberechi Eze, who if he isn’t the division’s best player is almost certainly the best to watch. And you thought Leeds were the Championship’s most exciting side. This should be good – strap in!